


Mama knows best

by anddirtyrain



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-07 10:50:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5453969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anddirtyrain/pseuds/anddirtyrain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Donna Smoak will not stand around with her arms crossed while her daughter suffers, so she takes matters into her own hands after Felicity calls her saying she and Oliver are done. Not on her watch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Oliver

 She stands outside of the doors, tugging on the hem of her blouse. She’s a little underdressed, just a blouse and some skinny jeans, and an amazing pair of heels she got in discount- but she’s been taking care of an emotionally distraught Felicity for the past 48 hours, and it’s quite a job.

She has never seen Felicity like she is right now. Her baby was always such a logical kind of person. There was not one broken heart in high school, only broken computers. She wasn’t that bad with the Cooper boy either, and he’d actually _died_.

She’s not sure if it just wasn’t in Felicity to really let go and break down back then, or if they’re only close enough now for her to seek comfort from her mother. Anyhow, Donna is going to do her job and make things right for her daughter.

The door finally opens and an equally distraught Oliver meets her eyes.

“Donna,” he breathes out. “Is Felicity with-“

“No,” she answers softly, before he can finish the question. “No, honey, she’s back at the hotel. Can I come in?”

He nods, stepping away from the door.

She walks into the loft, eyeing the space. There are no bottles of booze around that she can see, and he doesn’t seem to be drunk. That’s good. She’s worked enough years as a waitress to know nothing good comes from a man who drinks to escape his problems.

The kitchen is spotless, and that’s…honestly a little worrying. Heaven knows she’s never liked doing the dishes, it ruins her nails and dries her hands but Oliver, Oliver is the type to cook, but the kitchen is spotless. Has the man even eaten?

Or maybe he cooked and cleaned everything obsessively. Neither extreme is a good one. Not eating? Inability to care for himself if her daughter’s not around, or simply not being bothered to. Could be punishing himself. And having the house so spotless, he’s compartmentalizing.

She knows she’s not smart like Felicity or her ex-husband, but Donna Smoak is an excellent judge of character, thank you very much. Felicity would probably laugh at her people smarts, but you get something after so many years of waiting tables and serving drinks other than permanently achy ankles.

“Donna…what are you doing here?” Oliver’s voice is careful, if not a little broken, and she hurts a little for him. Not half as much as she hurts for her daughter though. And that one is on him.

“You know when was the last time I saw her so…devastated?”

She turns to look at Oliver, but he doesn’t answer.

“When she was seven and realized her father wasn’t coming back.” He flinches, and Donna knows then she wasn’t wrong about the kind of person he is. “Why did you lie to her about your son?” she asks simply.

Oliver sits down on the couch, his entire body folding forward as he hangs his head between his shoulders. She sits down next to him, and the mother in her wants so badly to lay a hand on his shoulder that it’s hard to refrain from doing it.

“She told me the mother asked you to keep it a secret from everyone. I guess my question is why did you include Felicity in that list? Your future _wife_.”

When he looks at her, his eyes are those of a man tortured.

 “Did you think she was going to tell someone? I mean, I know she has a terrible babbling problem- You should’ve seen her Bat Mitzvah, so much attention had her vibrating with nervousness, she could barely keep quiet longer than a second.”

Oliver half smiles.

“So that’s it, you don’t trust her to keep it a secret?”

“No, that was never-“

“All right. You’re an honorable man, Oliver, so you won’t lie to your child’s mother. You’d rather lie to Felicity.” Donna feels a little regret, raking him through the coals like this, but she’s getting to the bottom of this. “I get it, this woman is the mother of your boy and Felicity is just the girlfriend-“

“ _No!”_ he exclaims, and she finally sees a little bit of life back in his eyes _._ “It wasn’t like that. Felicity means everything to me. I don’t even-I don’t know Samantha. She doesn’t mean--We met _once,_ ten years ago, I-“

“I want to understand, Oliver. Help me do that.” She lays her hand on his forearm. “Because…I told my daughter that it was okay to feel the way she felt. That it was okay to give so much herself to you and your relationship because you felt the same way.  Was I wrong?”

The first time Felicity actually takes her advice it blows up on her face. Donna can’t help but think, if their relationship really is over…if Felicity had kept protecting herself she wouldn’t be as torn apart as she is now.

“I was scared,” Oliver tells her, and she can see how the answer costs him. This isn’t a man accustomed to talk about what he’s feeling, the bad parts, at least. That’s okay. The Smoaks will make a talker out of him yet. “I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to see my son when I just found out about him.”

Donna nods, that’s part of it. That’s what Felicity told her and the reason she couldn’t be angrier, just heartbroken. He wants to be a good father. But being a good father doesn’t mean being a good husband.

Oliver drags his hand over his face, Donna waits.

 “She’s so much better than me,” he says, looking at Donna through exhausted, red eyes. “She’s full of light. I…I’ve always thought, deep down…that if she saw who I really was, everything I’ve done, she wouldn’t love me. She’d see me differently.”

“My daughter’s not a saint, Oliver,” she tells him. “And you’re not the devil, either. You’re both just…people. _Good_ people. That doesn’t mean you don’t have dark inside of you, or mistakes you’ve made….I don’t presume to know the things you’ve done, or what you’ve been through, but you’re not a bad man. Trust me, I know one when I see one.”

“I was terrified of losing Felicity,” he says finally, quietly, like it is a secret you couldn’t read in his eyes or his posture, the way he seemed to breathe loss much like her daughter. What happens in this city that they lose so many people? “I love her, more than anything. I couldn’t lose her.” His voice breaks on the last word, and that’s the truth she was seeking, the entire reason why she came here.

Donna takes a deep breath as tenderness constricts her chest. This poor, silly man. She thinks of her daughter, curled underneath the sheet of their hotel bed and tries not to sigh. She has never witnessed a relationship where their problems stemmed from loving the other too much.

“A child is such a precious thing, Oliver,” she says. “What made you think my daughter would ever reject you for having one you didn’t even know about? And long before you met her?”

He doesn’t answer.

“I mean, did you see the future? How could you know you’d lose her over this, when she’s been nothing but supportive to you?”

The most bitter, self-deprecating smile paints his face, and Donna doesn’t understand what it means. But either way, she’s not done.

“She would’ve been proud of you for taking responsibility of your child, because Heaven knows her own father never did. I _know_ she _is_ proud of you, for that. But that… wasn’t for me to tell you.”

“I made a mistake. I should’ve told her but I was...a coward. She told me that I don’t trust her, and I never will.” He shakes his head. “But I do. Donna, _I trust her with my life_.”

“Maybe you should trust her with your secrets,” she says quietly.

“I already do.” He sounds so broken, she understands now why Felicity told her she couldn’t be in the same room as him. It wasn’t about anger. It was about self-respect, the one thing she made sure to teach her daughter. If she saw Oliver like this she’d forgive him without a second thought, and he’d never see what he did wrong. That’s no way to start a marriage.

But she also isn’t going to begrudge him a little comfort, when he looks so tortured. He knows he screwed up. Now he has to make it right.

“Come here,” she says, and he looks surprised for a moment before he accepts her embrace.

She holds him tight and –God, he really is pure muscle, wow. She rubs up and down his arm with a patience born of years of trying to be a good enough mother to the best part of her life.

“She loves you, that’s why she’s so hurt. She loves you _so much_ , and she will love that boy of yours too.” If there’s one thing stronger than Felicity’s ability to hold a grudge, is her capacity to _love_.  She just needs some time. And I think you need that too.

“I just need her,” he says simply, and Donna smiles.

She pulls away, and wipes her tears with her index fingers.

“Call her in the morning,” she orders.

“She’s not answering my calls."

"I’ll make sure she does," she tells him. "Don’t ask her to come back... just call her and talk to her. Okay?"  
  
He nods. 

"Donna...how is she?" he asks carefully. He looks in pain and she hasn't given him an answer.

She thinks of the sleepless night, the abandoned crying that scared the living daylights out of her when she first got there. She’s deep, deep in a funk that not all the warm milk in the world can get her out of. Only he can.

 “She’ll be better once you figure things out. Both of you will be.” She stands up and he follows her. “Now go take a shower and make yourself something to eat, okay? Some of those crazy protein shakes she says you like. If she doesn’t come back for her tablet, she’ll come back for the abs.”

She gets a smile out of him with that.

“Oliver, I can see you love my daughter, and I won’t pretend I’m not angry with you about what you did -God knows my baby doesn’t deserve to be betrayed by any more men in her life - but I also know you’re good for her. Same way she’s good for you. So I’ll put in a good word, okay?”

“Thank you, Donna,” he says.

“Don’t worry about it, hon.” She’s doing this for Felicity as much as for her future son-in-law.

Donna’s confident they would have figured things out eventually, but she can’t handle another day of Felicity in those hideous, ratty sweat pants. It reminds her too much of herself when her husband left, and it’s not something she wants for her daugther if she can’t help it. And she can. Those two are so much better together.

“I’m going to go freshen up, my makeup must be a mess!”

 


	2. Chapter 2

Felicity’s phone blares the Star Wars theme song where it rests on the middle of her nightstand, but after a quick look at the screen, she just lets it ring.

 “Aren’t you answering?”

The music gets a little to Donna’s nerves. Felicity made her take her to every single one of those awful movies when she was younger, and Donna never quite understood them.

“No, I don’t want to talk to him,” she says.

Donna picks up the phone, the picture that appears above the name ‘Oliver Queen’ catching her attention. It seems like a candid photo, Oliver’s not even looking at the camera, but his smile is radiant.

She misses that same smile on her daughter’s face. She extends the phone to Felicity.

“Baby…maybe it’s time.”

“No,” she swipes the phone from her hand, blowing off the call, and then types away –no doubt blocking his number.

 “Come here.” Donna pats her thigh, expectantly.  After sighing and rolling her eyes, Felicity lays her head down on her lap, just like they did when she was a little girl bothered by the bullies at school.

“I don’t know if it’s lucky or unlucky that you found him so young,” Donna says. “I mean, look at me, 45 and still trying…”

“47,” Felicity corrects, smiling.

“46,” Donna says, brushing her hair back from her forehead.  Felicity snorts. “And I recognize I haven’t always been the best judge of character when it comes to men, but I can’t say I regret anything, not when it gave me you.”  

She knows Felicity hates it when she gets sentimental, but she needs for her to hear it.

“And I mean, look at me and Quentin, maybe things always work out the way they’re supposed to.”

“You’ve been dating for a month.”

“An amazing month. And I can see he’s a good man.” She stops playing with her hair and Felicity notices. “Just like I know Oliver’s a good man. He made a mistake, but that doesn’t change who he is.”

“A mistake is making me dinner sprinkled with peanuts, he lied to me about having a _son_.” Her daughter looks up at her, her eyes wet. “After dad, how could you out of all people be on his side?” she asks, and surprise floods Donna at the question.

“ _I’m not._ I’m on _your_ corner baby girl,” she says, vehemently. “Always have, always will.“ She fishes her cellphone from her purse. “I’m not going to forgive him anytime soon,” she says, bringing the phone to life. “See? I even removed his name from the whatsapp thingy.”  

A curious expression washes over Felicity’s face.

“What? Did I do it wrong?”

“No, mom, it’s fine.” Felicity smiles a little. “You did well.”

“See? I’m on your side,” Donna says, then falters. “…but I don’t think you really want there to be sides in this.” She sits back against the headboard of the bed. “He lied to you. He broke your trust. You don’t have to forgive him for that quickly, or at all…”

“I want to, that’s kind of the worst part,” Felicity says. “And I know what things I could say that would…make him feel as bad as I do. But I just can’t.”

“Because you love him. And when you hurt him, you’re hurting yourself,” Donna says.

“He lied to me about having a son. He told me it didn’t matter, that it was nothing…” Felicity bites her lip. “I didn’t picture our life like this. I thought…“

“You’d be the one to make him a father?” Donna asks knowingly. She’s been through too much to believe a child can fix a relationship, but she once thought like her daughter. Now she thinks having a child with someone depends more on commitment and the ability to shoulder responsibility than on love.

“I thought we would go through all those things eventually, _together_ ,” Felicity says quietly.

“You still can. A child doesn’t negate a child. He already has a son, yes, but he missed…so _many_ , of the wonderful, crazy things that make it all worth it.” Donna smiles fondly, remembering a chubby, brown haired toddler building with Legos. “Watching your baby learn to walk, learn to speak…” She gently tapped Felicity’s stomach. “Feeling it kick.”

“Mom!”

“Don’t worry, I’m far too young to be a grandma,” she says, laughing. “My point is…. You and Oliver will get to experience all those things together for the first time, if you want.”

“But he should have gotten them with his son…” Felicity says. “It’s crazy how much I can imagine him as a dad. He’d pack lunches and answer toy telephones.” Felicity smiles wistfully.  “It… hurts me that he lost so many years. And I know I don’t know that woman but I hate her a little, for denying him that. For telling him to keep it a secret from me. But _he_ chose to listen to her and lie to _me_. And that part just makes me angry.”

“I’m a single mom. I can understand the desperate need to protect your child. If your father had returned when you were ten, claiming to have gotten his life together, I can’t say that I would have let him get close to you, only so he could break your heart again. Not even if I still loved him.”

“Are you saying you agree with-“

“No. Your father had an opportunity. He had seven years with us and he _chose_ to leave…not just me, but you. I couldn’t have cared less about me if he’d stuck around to watch you grow up into the amazing woman you are, Felicity.”

“Stop it, mom,” Felicity complained. “I’m already dehydrated, crying more might actually kill me.”

Donna wiped her tears through her laughter.

“But he had a choice.”

“Oliver never had that,” Felicity says, snuggling further into her lap. “He never knew that boy even existed.”

“The one thing that’s true…when you become a parent, your child comes first,” Donna says. “It’s okay to be selfish, Felicity. You wanted to come first and God knows no one deserves it more than you, baby. You should’ve come first to your father, and to Oliver. But life doesn’t always go the way we want it to. He has a son…things are going to be different. But it doesn’t have to be bad. You’re still his everything.”

“When did you become such a fountain of knowledge?”

“I may not know a lot about your techy stuff, but I raised you. I know, better than anyone, that a child is never a bad thing.” She nudged her chin. “Oliver made a mistake, but he was scared. Afraid of not seeing his son, of losing you…Fear makes cowards of the best of us, Felicity.” 

Donna is not a fan of Oliver Queen in these moments, but if there’s one thing she can understand, is how much he loves her daughter. And she wants nothing more than for Felicity to smile again

  “It’s okay if you don’t answer the phone now, or tomorrow. It’s okay if you choose not to answer at all, and break things off with him. You’re in the right here, baby. But…if you _love_ him, if you can’t imagine loving anyone else that much...” Donna shrugs

Felicity sits up, wiping her cheeks. “I love you, mom,” she says, hugging Donna.

She pulls away only to pick up her cellphone, and after faltering for only a second, Felicity dials a number she knows by heart. It doesn’t ring very long until someone anwers.

“…Hi.” Felicity’s voice is small, tentative, but full of longing all the same.

“Felicity?”

“Oliver.”

There’s a long stretch of silence, where Donna stands up and tries to find something to do to make herself scarce.

“His name is William.”

“William. That’s a nice name.”

“Yes. He’s…he’s 9. He loves The Flash.”

“….that must have been a hit to your ego,” Felicity says, and Donna has no idea what they’re on about. Oliver is a fan of the Green Arrow?

“He let me play action figures with him, the first time I met him... ”

Felicity sits back against the headboard and Donna watches her daughter hold onto the cellphone, a small smile painting her face for the first time in days.

Her work here is done.


End file.
